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Title: Editorial: Usefulness Versus Complexity
Author: Bob Schmidt
Date: 11 January 2019 16:34:01 +00:00 or Fri, 11 January 2019 16:34:01 +00:00
Summary:
Body:
Computers, and the software that drives them, are all becoming increasingly sophisticated. They have come a long way from the days of punch-cards and room-sized machines that could perform – admittedly quite complex – mathematical functions almost as quickly as their human operators. Today we have pocket-sized computing power that far out-strips the abilities of early computing machinery, that has access to a vast array of information and computing power over the Internet.
Modern computers and computer programs perform tasks that no human could achieve (even relatively simple tasks like rendering graphics in a game, if done by a real person, would make the game un-playably slow!). This sophistication comes with a price, of course. The hardware and software used to do those things requires deep, specialized knowledge in a multitude of disciplines, probably beyond the abilities of any one person. An extreme example of this is the use of ‘AI’ techniques in almost every area of technology. Yes, the quotes are deliberate, because most of those techniques don’t really represent ‘intelligence’. Nevertheless, it’s an area where real understanding of what is going on ‘under the hood’ is held by a very small number of people.
Most of the areas for which AI has been lauded is in fields that people are instinctively good at: identifying faces (and other objects) in photos, recognizing and parsing natural speech in real-time. It’s undoubtedly true that computer automation (let’s call it what it is) can indeed do some of the work that up until now has been done by human beings. It is to be hoped that this results in a positive outcome all-round, where everyone benefits. On the other hand, I don’t think we’re under any immediate threat from as widespread a take-over of all human affairs that some sections of the media seem to want us to believe.
It being the year of Blade Runner, it’s not flying cars that are conspicuous by their absence, but the intelligent robots that are nearly indistinguishable from people.
Notes:
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